Binay camp blasts detractors’ ‘amateurish’ attempt to expose Batangas estate

By: Maila Ager - 10 years ago

An aerial view of the 350-hectare agriculture estate in Rosario, Batangas province, that has a garden patterned after London’s Kew Gardens. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY ERNESTO MERCADO

MANILA, Philippines–An “amateurish attempt to do a repeat of the Purisima expose” was how the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay described on Wednesday the latest report that he owned a 350-hectare agricultural estate in Batangas province.

“As we have expected, the detractors of Vice President Jejomar Binay will allege today (Wednesday) in the Senate sub-committee hearing that the Vice President owns a property in Rosario, Batangas,” Binay’s spokesman, Joey Salgado, said in a statement.

“The detractors will show aerial photos of the said property, an amateurish attempt to do a repeat of the ‘Purisima’ expose,” he said, referring to Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima, whose property in Nueva Ecija also came to light after a television station showed an aerial view of the compound.

But Salgado pointed out that the Vice President has never denied owning the JCB Farms that rented the Batangas property operated by Sunchamp Agri-Tourism Park. He said Binay even included the farm in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

“Sunchamp Park in Rosario, Batangas has been featured in several publications and TV program and its amenities. These photos would probably be the same photos to be peddled by the Vice President’s detractors in the sub-committee hearing,” said the spokesman.

“The facilities and amenities mentioned by Mr. Mercado like the mansion, pool and garden are not owned by the Binays or JCB Farms. These were facilities and amenities constructed by the original owner, Mr. Laureano Gregorio, in the area where the farm is a lessee,” Salagado pointed out.

Mercado is former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, who provided the media aerial shots of the Batangas property.

Salagado said the Vice President’s lawyers will make a point-by-point rebuttal of the allegations immediately after the Senate sub-committee hearing this Wednesday.